“He waved to the city and said good-bye.The city responded by carrying on the way it always did, traffic moving forward uninterrupted, without slowing, as if it were trying to demonstrate its permanence and show him it would still be there if he ever wanted to return. That promise was the best and only thing he could ask of it.”

“Giuseppe would miss them as well, but in a different way than he would miss the city. A city would stay the same. The same buildings. The same streets. Not forever, but for a great long while. But Frederick and Hannah would never again be the people they were right now, standing on the dock, wishing him farewell. Tomorrow they would wake up and be a little bit different and a little bit different the day after that, and in no time they might become people he did not recognize. Giuseppe knew it because they were already different from when he had first met them. He knew it because he was different from when they had first met him.”

“Clockwork could not run counter to its nature. The seconds, minutes, and hours moved only forward. Patient, precise, and unstoppable. Memory was an indulgence, an illusion that broke like a wave upon the juggernaut of time. The past remained the past.”

“It was his fault too,” Fredrick said. “He never really asked her why. It was like he didn’t want to know.”

“I hate them!' she cried. 'It's not fair!''No, it isn't,' Frederick said gently.'I can't do it all!''No. You can't.' After a long moment he said, 'But you can do what you can.''And what if that isn't enough?'Frederick held her shoulders and took a step back. He looked in her eyes. 'Enough for what?''For my family.''What more could they ask for than what you've given?”

“Sometimes, when we want something so badly, we fear failure more than we fear being without that thing.”

“Never trust a storyteller," he says. "We're all of us liars.”